Evolution (Evolution Series Book 1)

by Kelly Carrero

When we arrived back at my house, it was late afternoon. I wondered where the day had gone. It had been barely lunchtime when the police arrived, and now the sun was starting to set.

  Aiden leaned against his car as I made my way up the pathway to my house. Ben had called to see if we had heard about Chelsea being rescued. What Ben didn’t know, and what Aiden was filling him in on, was that I had been there, too.

  I picked up my pace, trying to distance myself as much as possible from Aiden so I wouldn’t have to hear him explaining to Ben what had supposedly happened. I had already explained it too many times, and all I really wanted to do was get inside, flop on the couch, and try to forget about one of the longest, most terrifying days of my entire life.

  Grabbing my house keys out of my pocket, I turned around to see if Aiden was still on the phone. He held up his finger and thought, “I’ll be just a sec.”

  Reaching for the door handle, I realised it was already unlocked. Mum must be home. I pushed the door further ajar and threw my keys onto the hallway stand.

  “Mum?” I made my way into the living room, but there was no answer. That was when I saw the blood. My heart stopped, and I was gasping for air, but for all my efforts, I couldn’t seem to fill my lungs with anything that remotely felt like oxygen.

  Her light brown hair had turned a crimson red, and she was staring directly at me—her eyes were lifeless.

  My legs could no longer hold my weight, and I buckled, falling to the floor and screaming as my heart was wrenched out of my chest.

  Aiden was by my side in a split second. He pulled me into his arms for what I thought would be a comforting embrace, but I was wrong.

  His voice ran through my head, but the words had no meaning. They were drowned out by the gut-wrenching numbness that consumed my mind. My vision had blurred as the world swirled around me.

  Next thing I knew, I was no longer doubled over on my living room floor. I was standing in the Gold Coast International Airport.

  An announcement came over the loud speaker. It was calling for passengers to commence boarding flight V165 to Singapore from Gate 21.

  “What are we doing here? Mum needs help. We have to call an ambulance!” I sobbed softly. I knew deep down that calling an ambulance wouldn’t do any good. They couldn’t help her. They weren’t in the business of bringing people back from the dead. But I felt like I needed to be doing something, anything, other than stand in an airport. Why wasn’t I with my mother?

  Aiden was speaking, but his words were still muted by the numbness that consumed me.

  The next thing I knew, the numbness was almost gone. I still remembered that I had just walked in on the scene of my own mother’s murder, but the gut-wrenching pain that soared through my entire body was no more than a dull ache. It was as if it had been months or even years since her passing, not just the few minutes since I had walked in and found her lying on the floor.

  “What just happened? What did you do to me?” I asked, knowing exactly what he had done, but I wanted to hear his reasoning.

  I realised that Aiden had been holding me up, and I quickly broke away from his embrace.

  He grabbed my hands, pulling me back to him, trying to avoid a scene. “I know I promised I would never, but I had to. You were a mess.”

  He must have seen the anger building up in my face. Of course I was a mess. Who wouldn’t be a mess in my situation?

  “And of course you have every right to be a mess with what you…” He didn’t finish the sentence. “Jade, whoever did that to your mother… They were still there, waiting for you.”

  “What?” I didn’t get it. He had killed someone with nothing more than his mind, yet he ran from my house.

  “I could feel their presence, but their thoughts were blocked, which means they were like us.” He paused, letting the full effect of what he had just said sink into me. The person who killed my mother was untouchable. She hadn’t stood a chance. Why did they stick around, waiting for me?

  “I don’t know. But I had to get you out of there, and I needed you to be thinking clearly. All I did was dull your emotions enough so that we could get out of there safely.”

  There was real angst in his eyes. He had broken his promise that he would never use his mind control thing on me. Yet, I could completely understand why he did what he had. If the situation was reversed, and he was as traumatised as I had been, I would have done the same thing to him—even if there was no immediate danger. I couldn’t bear to see someone I loved go through what I had just experienced. And really, with his latest revelation, there were bigger things for me to worry about than Aiden dulling my emotions.

  “It’s okay,” I assured him. Although he already knew that I was okay with what he had done, I wasn’t planning on giving up on talking just because he already knew what I was going to say.

  “Are you ready?” He was holding his arms out, waiting for me to embrace him.

  Another announcement came over the loudspeaker. It was the last call for passengers flying to Singapore on Flight V165 to board through Gate 21.

  Aiden’s words replayed in my mind. “We’re going to Singapore?” It finally made sense why we were standing in the Gold Coast International Airport.

  “We have to get out of here. It’s not safe right now. There is no time to explain. Please, just trust me.”

  Of course I was going to trust him. After what I had witnessed, I would be crazy not to. “But how? We don’t have tickets or passports.”

  “Just trust me.”

  I moved forward into Aiden’s embrace. The moment we connected, my vision went blurry again. When I was finally able to make out what I was seeing, we were no longer standing at the entrance to the airport; we were standing at the entrance to the plane.

  A stewardess standing near the plane’s door and giving directions to the passengers almost passed out when she saw us suddenly appear before her eyes. As her eyes started to roll to the back of her head, she suddenly stopped and went into a trance.

  “Go and find a couple of seats for us. First class preferably. I just need a couple of seconds with her,” he said to me, cocking his head towards the zoned-out stewardess. “I’ll be with you in a few seconds.”

  I took my seat on the plane and waited for Aiden to join me. A few seconds passed, and he wasn’t to be seen. I knew he was all right. After all, he could convince people to do anything he wanted, but I wondered what could be taking him so long. My mind was instantly put at ease when I saw his smiling face appear around the corner of the plane’s entry door.

  “Hey, beautiful,” he said, sitting down beside me.

  I smiled in return.

  “Sorry. One of the pilots popped his head out of the cockpit, so I had to make sure he didn’t remember us being on board, either,” he explained.

  Aiden picked up my hand and laced his fingers with mine. “We will be okay. You’ll see.” He was trying to ease my mind.

  All I could think about was what our future held. Where would we live? Who would want to kill my mother? Was her murderer really after me? And would we be running from this person forever?

  “I don’t know,” he replied to my thoughts. “We’ll speak with Anna, Dave, and a few of the others once we’re safe, and we’ll figure this out.”

  The vision of my mum’s lifeless body flashed before my eyes. Tears started welling as I realised that she would still be alive if it wasn’t for me.

  “I can make this feeling go away. If you want, that is,” Aiden said.

  “It’s okay. I mean, I’m still sad and all, but what you did to me before was amazing. I still feel the pain, but it’s nowhere near as intense. I can handle this. I want to feel something. I need to feel something.”

  We were all instructed to fasten our safety belts as the plane headed towards the runway.

  My heart felt heavy as realisation set in. These were the last few moments of my life as I had known it for so many years. All of my friends… Chelsea—how I would miss her. I didn
’t even get to say good-bye. I hoped that one day she would forgive me.

  Aiden took hold of my hand and kissed it gently. “Are you ready?”

  The plane hit the runway, speeding up to ascend into the clouds above.

  “Yep,” I whispered. Looking into his eyes, I knew that I would never be alone. Our lives were only just beginning. And whatever the future held, we would get through it together.

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